Antiangiogenic agents such as bevacizumab have shown efficacy in treating advanced colorectal cancer (CRC). Now, in the QUASAR 2 trial — an open-label, randomized phase III study — researchers have tested whether there is additional benefit in an adjuvant CRC setting from combining bevacizumab with the chemotherapeutic capecitabine. From 170 hospitals, 1,941 patients who had potentially curative surgery for stage III or high-risk stage II CRC were recruited and randomly assigned to receive either treatment of capecitabine alone (n = 968) or the same regimen plus bevacizumab (n = 973). After a median follow-up of 4.92 years, the primary end point of 3-year disease-free survival was not found to differ between the two groups, indicating no benefit from using bevacizumab in the adjuvant management of CRC in unselected patients.
References
Kerr, R. S. et al. Adjuvant capecitabine plus bevacizumab versus capecitabine alone in patients with colorectal cancer (QUASAR 2): an open-label, randomised phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(16)30172-3 (2016)
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Dickson, I. No benefit for adjuvant capecitabine plus bevacizumab in colorectal cancer. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 13, 624 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2016.173
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2016.173